How to Use Evernote to Improve Your Home: Tips from AphroChic Founder Jeanine Hays

Did you know that May is National Home Improvement month? It’s a great time to think about ways to spruce up your home and garden, so we thought we’d ask an expert to share some tips for ways that Evernote helps her keep track of inspiration and organize projects.

Bio

Jeanine Hays is the Creative Director & Founder of AphroChic, a home decor and design brand that includes a popular blog and shop that sells textiles and home accessories. A policy attorney, Jeanine founded AphroChic three years ago as an interior design blog, and quickly expanded into a business that allowed her to create designs of her own. Jeanine has a weekly feature on color and textiles on HGTV’s interior design blog, Design Happens. She has also participated as an online guest judge for the 2010 season of HGTV’s Design Star, and is a featured blogger for Houzz. After being introduced to Evernote by a home owner she was working with, Jeanine became hooked on using the tool for everything from planning her travels to coordinating with her team, and working on her book.

Jeanine’s Stylish Tips for Home Projects

Above: capture inspiration on the Web, using the Evernote Web Clipper. Select tags and notebooks. All of your web clips automatically sync across all of your devices.

I am a huge fan of Evernote. As a textile designer, blogger, and soon-to-be author it’s extremely important for me to be as organized as possible, and Evernote helps me to stay organized at all times. Part of my job is focused on styling. I’ve been styling several interiors for our home decor book, and use Evernote to stay on top of the numerous projects that have to be done for each interior. Evernote is fantastic for:

Keeping track of a list of different projects. Our team spent time shooting and styling interiors in Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. I created a separate notebook for each interior, and then collected a list of items I wanted to bring into each room in the space. Whether a pillow, a new piece of lighting, or flowers, it was all neatly collected in my Evernote notebook.

Evernote is also great way to communicate with others who are involved in your home decor project. For me, it was my styling team. I needed to easily be able to send them the items I was thinking of using in a particular interior. It can be just as handy when sending ideas for your next renovation project to your significant other, designer, and even your contractor. [Evernote Tip: share notes via email or add them to a Shared Notebook, then invite individuals to view what you’ve shared.]

The sync function is also integral to any interior project you’re working on. You can keep track of ideas on your computer, and voila, the project you’re working on is ready and synced on your iPhone. This is fantastic when you’re on a purchasing trip, and need to access your notes quickly. [Learn how Sync works]

The great thing about Evernote for interiors projects is that you can keep absolutely everything on file — measurements, store and contact information, vendor names, and even color palettes. It can all be kept and organized to help you achieve your project goals easily. [Learn how to capture multiple types of media in a single note]

I use Evernote for interior design ideas too. I’ve created a master notebook called Interiors, and have sub-notebooks for each room in my home and also each project I’m working on. Within each sub-notebook, I’ve created notes for everything: pictures of rooms I like that I’ve found on Houzz, Pinterest, etc… as well as DIY ideas, and shopping wish list items. Its such an awesome app! I love being able to check my notes from my phone while out and about.

I’m impressed, I have to say. Really hardly ever do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and entertaining, and let me inform you, you might have hit the nail on the head. Your idea is outstanding; the problem is something that not sufficient people are speaking intelligently about. I am very joyful that I stumbled across this in my seek for something referring to this.